Romance: Yes, Stepbrother!

by Annie Valentine

  A short burst of static marked the computer’s transition to war mode. The portable module he carried on his arm bleeped once as Ranael connected his ear piece to it then went silent. The crackle of static brought a frown to the archon’s face.

  “Hey, Ranael! Do you hear me?”

  “Zarall?”

  “I’m your support right now.”

  “You’re here?”

  “No. Special Covert has been mobilized and is heading for Earth as we speak. Silver Custody didn’t tell you?”

  “No…”

  Ranael gritted his teeth and swore internally. Ariuk was following his own game plan. And Ranael wasn’t sure what it would mean for Caitlin.

  “I saw Tiamat ready war mode for you.”

  Ranael sighed. “Yeah. We have two teams on the way.”

  “We?”

  “You’ve been read in?”

  “You’ve got a Potential down there. Linked. That’s all we know at the moment.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you that much: The Potential is linked to a young woman. She is here with me. Against her will, I might add. And I have two teams of unknown coming at us.”

  “I’m pulling the data now. Radio frequencies tracked and locked. Do you want a patch?”

  “No. Talk me through it.”

  “You got any weaponry down there?”

  “Local only. I wasn’t supposed to get involved in anything.”

  Zarall chuckled on the other end of the transmission.

  “Right. I’m afraid we won’t be much help. Our ETA is sixteen Terran days.”

  “At least I have eyes and ears out there. Are you patched in yet?”

  “We have a feed. It’s grainy. There are a lot of interferences. But we’ve got you. You’re ready for this?”

  “Yes. Going silent. Talk me through.”

  “We have two vehicles. Two teams of four. They’ve stopped about a klick away from you. Due south-west. No other unknown with fifty klicks.”

  Ranael nodded, knowing that Zarall could see him move. The archon knew better than to rush. He moved within the shadows, guided by Zarall’s voice. He circled around his foes, wondering if they were just humoring him. The radio chatter Zarall was picking up didn’t lead them to believe those people knew that their prey had become their hunter.

  “Hey, Ranael. We have a problem up here.”

  Zarall’s voice crackled in his ear. The archon did his best to ignore it. He didn’t really need to hear what he already knew.

  “The interferences… worse… something… your end…”

  The buzzing in his ear grew ever more insistent, at least until Tiamat cut the communication. The program would try to secure a different channel to the incoming squad. Ranael knew it wouldn’t happen. The Potential had assessed the trouble brewing and had re-activated the Kashyk protocol. The unknown would be experiencing the same problem of their communications now. So Ranael moved. He approached the last of the men trying to sneak on the cabin. He studied him for a little while: dressed all in black, face painted to hide in the dark, holding what appeared to be a hand gun with a suppressor attached. That man moved cautiously. The fact that he was trained for that kind of things would have been obvious to most. The archon was just better. To his credit, the man saw him coming two seconds before the space warrior was on him. His shot was wide though and Ranael brought him down with a kinetic-empowered punch to the stomach. The man dropped to the ground, unconscious.

  Ranael went through the man’s equipment quickly. His radio only gave static, as the archon had expected. He ripped it off the would-be assassin and smashed it against a tree. He took the gun for himself and the spare magazines. He continued in this vein, taking out the assassins one at a time. He managed to dispatch one of the teams before they got to the cabin. The archon stood by the edge of the trees, watching as the team of four crossed the small clearing where the cabin stood. His gaze swept across the front of the cabin. The light still streamed from the one window, but Caitlin couldn’t be seen. One man signaled another, and the second assassin went round the side of the wooden building. Ranael let him go. The door and the window were the only entry points to the cabin. He had chosen it for this reason. He took careful aim at the leader.

  These men were professionals. When the soldier checking for back entrances came back and their second team still hadn’t signaled them, they knew something was wrong. They chose to move in. Ranael took his shot and moved away, trying his best to dodge the hail of bullets suddenly aimed his way.

  “Get the girl!”

  One man kicked the cabin’s door in. Ranael’s heard Caitlin shout. And the man went flying clear across the clearing. He hit a tree and slid down the trunk. The archon smirked, aimed and fired. A second man went down. But the third had made it inside. Shots were fired and Ranael rushed in. He wasn’t surprised to find the thug holding Caitlin in front of him.

  “Who are you?”

  “Her bodyguard.”

  “Not doing so great a job,” the man said as he took a step forward.

  Ranael smirked as he readily yielded ground. “I don’t know. You’re the last one standing. I guess we’re doing all right, considering there was eight of you, and only two of us.”

  The assassin took another step forward and Ranael, another step back. Their little dance continued until all three of them were out of the cabin. The soldiers were still pointing their guns at each other. Ranael wanted to look down at Caitlin but knew better. Any wavering and they’d both be dead. The glow of the Potential was enough to tell him that Caitlin had a chance of getting away.

  “I’m wondering how you found us?” Ranael asked, playing for time.

  “She has a trace on.”

  Caitlin made a choking sound as the assassin brought her closer to him, his arm wrapped around her throat. The archon saw the Potential pulse in the dark on the edge of his field of vision.

  “Any chance we could all walk away from this alive?”

  “I have no order to kill anyone. Just to get the girl.”

  The Potential tells me different, Ranael thought as the glow of the super-computer brighten enough to illuminate Caitlin’s face along with her abductor’s. The man blinked. And the archon took his shot. So did the assassin. Caitlin’s scream was the last thing Ranael heard before darkness took him away.

  CHAPTER TEN: Bittersweet

  Caitlin screamed as she fell to the ground. She only had eyes for Ranael as the archon fell to on one knee in front of her, a growing patch of red darkening his t-shirt.

  “No!”

  The young woman scrambled to her feet and rushed to her fallen protector. She wasn’t quick enough to get to him before he collapsed on his side in the dirt.

  “Ranael.”

  The space soldier grimaced and growled as she turned him onto his back and pressed her hands against his bleeding shoulder.

  “Get inside,” the archon grunted.

  Caitlin scoffed and shook her head. She lifted Ranael’s good arm over her head to leverage his weight off the ground.

  “I’m too heavy and it’s too dangerous. Get inside!”

  “Bit of help, Green.”

  The pendant around her neck flashed white for a moment then Caitlin and Ranael found themselves floating a few inches above the ground.

  “Controlled magnetic field,” Ranael grumbled in a voice that was part annoyed and part awed.

  Caitlin shrugged. She was an art student, not a scientist. She had no idea what a controlled magnetic field could do, but if it got them safely inside the cabin, she’d take it. As they floated through the entrance, Caitlin took a moment to push the door shut with her foot. Ranael was set onto the table, lying on his back.

  “There are bandages in there,” the bleeding man muttered as he indicated a kitchen cupboard.

  Caitlin grabbed the supplies and a pair of scissors. She cut his t-shirt and swallowed hard as she got a better view of the blood rapidly oozing from Ranael’s shoulder.

 
; “Funny,” she commented. “I expected your blood to be green or something.”

  “The seraphs may have left Earth for the stars millennia ago, but we’re still mostly human. Now don’t worry too much as my wound. It’s just a graze.”

  “Just a graze that happened to punch a hole right through your arm.”

  “Seraphs heal very quick.”

  Caitlin sighed and shook her head. But she went on, picking up pieces of gauze that she taped over the entry and exit wounds before she wrapped his arm tightly.

  “How much control have you got some control over your Potential?”

  Caitlin swallowed and shrugged.

  “I saw you tossing that man across the clearing like it was nothing.”

  “I don’t control as much as I ask, I think.”

  “Same difference,” Ranael said as he rotated his shoulder around, experiencing with the range of movement the bandage afforded him. “Show me it for a moment.”

  Caitlin shrugged and pulled her necklace over her head before she handed it over to the space soldier. Ranael held the stone near his left arm, where Tiamat’s mobile interface was still attached.

  “Care to let my computer in for a moment?”

  “I don’t really know how,” Caitlin chuckled.

  “Just ask,” was Ranael’s reply.

  Caitlin concentrated her thoughts on that and the two of them watched as the stone glowed a steady green in front of them.

  “Tiamat, pair with the Potential for a moment. Activate the Kashyk protocol, set it to planet-wide and to end only on a double authorization from Caitlin and me.”

  “Initiating request.”

  Caitlin blinked slowly. “Why?”

  Ranael reached over, wrapping a hand into her hair, and he kissed her. Caitlin sighed and let her lips fall open as his questing tongue sought entrance. The kiss was loving, and deep, and unhurried even in the face of the darkness and deaths they had faced just moments before. And it brought tears to Caitlin’s eyes because it tasted very much like goodbye.

  “Don’t leave me,” she whimpered against his lips.

  “I need to head them off. If you want something of a normal life, Caitlin, I need to get the seraphs off your back.”

  “I don’t want a normal life. I want you.”

  Her sob turned into a gasp of pleasure as Ranael sunk his teeth into the lob of her ear. He soothed the nip with his tongue even as he pushed Caitlin to lie down on the couch. She sighed, burrowing her hands under his t-shirt then raking her nails down his back. He bucked against her, his hardening member heavy on her thigh even through their clothes. Caitlin spread her legs and wiggled on the couch until his erection rested right along her core, right where she wanted him.

  “I will need to get back out there. I don’t trust Ariuk. Not with the Potential, and certainly not with you.”

  His lips brushed down her neck, his nose nudging the neck of her shirt out of the way as he grazed her collarbone with his teeth.

  “You’re hurt, Ranael.”

  “Not that much.”

  Their lips met again and clung together. Fingers caressed down her sides then back up, taking her top with them. Caitlin lifted her arms to make the job easier then returned the favor, chucking Ranael’s shirt far away after she was done. Ranael continued on his way down her body, pushing the scraps of lace off her breasts so he could feast on them, one after the other. His tongue swirled around and flicked at her nipples until they were matching buds of pebbled flesh straining for just one more swipe of his clever flesh on them.

  But Ranael soon was on his way further down. And Caitlin could not have stopped him for all the power in the universe. He deftly unbuttoned her jeans and pushed them down her, taking her underwear with them in his impatience. His nose nuzzled at the curly hairs hiding the bundle of nerves at her center. Then he moved further down, sticking his stiffened tongue inside her.

  “God!” Caitlin gasped as her fingers gripped Ranael’s head, holding him firmly in place.

  But he had no intention of moving away, and he licked and nipped at her nether lips, drinking the flow of her pleasure even as her whimpers grew into moans, and then full-blown screams. Warmth pooled between her legs as Ranael moved slightly, wrapping his lips around her clitoris and flicking his tongue over her, two fingers finding her opening and sinking within her. She called his name as she neared the edge, unwilling to leap without him. But Ranael took the choice from her when he sucked hard on her clit, curling his fingers within her and finding that spot inside.

  “Ranael!”

  Caitlin fell over the cliff, mewling her lover’s name as his fingers and mouth prolonged her pleasure with measured licks and gentle strokes. When Caitlin returned to her senses and smiled at him, Ranael quickly moved, shedding the last of his clothes and settling over her once more. The heat of his body cocooned her, and Caitlin felt the tears fall along her face and into her hair. Her space warrior kissed the droplets from her skin.

  “I will protect you.”

  “But I won’t see you again.”

  Ranael let his forehead rest against hers, not bothering to deny her statement. With a sigh, Caitlin reached between their bodies, grasping his erect manhood and tugging him in position. She brushed him along her opening, coating him in the proof of her want. Then he pushed in her. They groaned in unison, Caitlin shifting her hips to try to take him deeper, wanting to hold him to her forever.

  “I’ll always be here,” Ranael whispered, his lips grazing against her left breast, right above her heart.

  Caitlin bit her bottom lip to hold back her whimper. But she couldn’t stop her moan as Ranael gently raked his teeth along one erect nipple then the other. They started to move together, gentle caresses and fervent movements. Ranael surged against her, his length within her massaging her sensitive walls. Caitlin wrapped herself around her lover as best she could, fingers threading through sweat-soaked hair, thighs spreading to welcome his thrusts into her body, heels digging into his backside in an effort to keep him right there. Her back arched as another bolt of pleasure raced through her, the prelude to another mind-shattering orgasm.

  “Harder. Please.”

  Ranael smiled down at Caitlin. He slipped out just long enough to place one of her legs against his shoulder. She bit down on her lip but her blissful yelp echoed in the cabin anyway when he impaled her on his erection once more. He rammed into her again and again, sending jolts of pleasure coursing through her limbs, his hands clawing at her and marking her as his. Her breasts jostled with each of his sinful attacks on her core and she felt the radiant frenzy of her orgasm reach its peak. Her swollen sheath clamped down on his length as she fell into him. His head fell forward A few more savage thrusts saw him shout her name and join her on the tranquil shores of completion.

  “I love you.”

  Even on the edges of consciousness, Caitlin knew this would be the last time she heard her handsome Ranael for a long time.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: Epilogue

  Caitlin was back in her studio, facing a blank canvas and wondering if the events of that week, a couple of months or so ago, had just been a feverish dream. The young woman had awoken alone, as she knew she would. Ranael had gone back to his stars in a misguided attempt to protect her, she thought. Her Potential had still been glowing around her neck. It hadn’t stopped since. She’d found a letter from Ranael on the table, explaining exactly what he wanted her to do. And she had.

  As Ranael had commanded, Caitlin had taken one of the assassins’ cars and driven back to Boston. She’d gone straight to the flat, only to be greeted by a frantic John, who’d alternatively sworn at her and crushed her in his big brotherly embrace. She’d played the card of innocence to the maximum, pretending to know nothing of any kidnapper or even the trashing of their flat. She told him she’d been spooked by Adam and had rented a cabin in the woods for the week rather than face her ex. Ranael had been gentlemanly enough to drive her up there, but then he’d left. John had taken
her to the nearest police station so she could give a statement. When asked about the witness who’d seen her running away from a man, she shrugged and said it couldn’t have been her. But she knew it hadn’t been a dream. The steadily glowing Potential around her neck had told her that. So had the still-healing scratches on her back.

  “Hey girl, you’re daydreaming again.”

  Caitlin smiled and didn’t turn. She’d felt her best friend coming up the stairs through the Potential.

  “Just wondering what theme I’m going to choose for my next exhibit.”

  “Wait. You haven’t even shown the jungle theme yet.”

  Caitlin shrugged and smiled. “It’s ‘rain forest’, not ‘jungle’. And let’s just say I’m feeling attracted to the stars right now.”

  “Well, let me bring your feet firmly to the ground by requesting that you feed me the greasiest lunch in town.”

  Caitlin felt her stomach rebel at the very idea of food. She knew she’d turned a funny color when John was immediately by her side.

  “Have you seen a doctor yet? You’ve been under the weather for the past few days.”

  “For a bout of flu? I don’t think so, John. I’ll be right as rain in just a week.”

  John pouted. “Fine. No greasy lunch. But I expect you to join me for a sandwich.”

  “How about I join you at Peter’s in about ten fifteen minutes? Tell him no mayonnaise for me, and a tea rather than my usual mocha. I’m not sure my stomach can handle it otherwise.”

  “Sure thing!”

  Caitlin laughed as she watched the man she thought of as her brother bounding away from her studio. She packed her things away. With a sigh, she looked from the blank canvas in front of her to a small, covered piece standing in one side of the room. Her hand came to rest against her abdomen. Caitlin knew full well it wasn’t the flu. She’d hidden the pregnancy test from John. She’d hidden the news from everyone, really. No one knew: not her parents, not her friends, and not Ranael.

  “We’ll be all right, little one.”

  Caitlin nodded to herself, a small smile playing about her lips, before she grabbed her jacket and started on her way to the coffee shop. She might even choke down half a ham sandwich to keep John and Peter off her back…